ETHOS

ETHOS in practice during the war

Dn Nicholas Denysenko calls on the Orthodox Churches to refrain from sharing communion with the ROC

Communion, Separation, Healing

At the official level, we describe communion as partaking of the life of God. We are connected to the entire communion of believers at the Divine Liturgy, even when we are absent – they carry on for those who are at home. This liturgical participation is a prolepsis of the life to come, when God will be all in all, and we will all be together, gathered around and in Him.

We grasp for language to describe this communion in ordinary life. The best metaphor is of a family gathering – the nuclear family at the micro-level, and the parish family at the macro (or diocesan for hardcore ecclesiologists).

There is no such thing as a life that consists only of good experiences and interactions. Families love one another, but they quarrel.

And if we’re honest, families can be cruel. Parents can alienate their children. Spouses argue and use bitter words. People abuse each other – physically, sexually, emotionally.

When there is abuse, there must be separation to protect the vulnerable. Reconciliation can come later, but only with completely new terms.

Right now, the ROC is participating in the most cruel physical and sexual abuse inflicted by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian citizens. The leaders of the ROC are blessing and justifying the murder of innocents. The other members of the Church “family” have sent letters asking the leaders of the ROC to intervene. Russian Church leaders are ignoring these pleas from their siblings and cousins. They seem to have doubled down on hate speech and inciting of violence.

It is no longer sufficient for any of the Orthodox Churches to ask them to stop. It is now necessary for us to separate from the Church of Moscow – to refuse to share communion with them, to cease commemorating them in the Liturgy.

This action is necessary because it is the next step in prophetic action to expose the abuse the Russian Church is both enabling and blessing.

Reconciliation will be possible only after this necessary separation. No one can credibly claim to desire to stop the killing and destruction if they will continue to maintain normal relations with the leaders of the Russian Church. We are only enabling them to continue to make scandalous – and just plain false – statements about the justification for these evil acts if we maintain normal relations.

I hope and pray that the leaders of the Churches will build upon the steps they have already taken by refusing to participate in the abuse the leaders of the ROC continue to inflict upon the innocent citizens of Ukraine. This means to separate from them, to protect the innocent.

If we fail to do so, we not only violate the human dignity of victims and refugees. We also violate our own dignity.

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